


Stay with me

by c_c_cherry



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Heavy Angst, Hurt Link, Hurt Link (Legend of Zelda), Link (Legend of Zelda) Needs a Hug, M/M, Men Crying, Minor Character Death, No relationships confirmed but slight sidlink, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Shock, Sidon is precious, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-23 22:00:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21088469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c_c_cherry/pseuds/c_c_cherry
Summary: Because you can't just forget a traumatic event. Also the headcanon where Link has trauma due to the crazy shit he experienced needs to be explored more, so here I am!AKA: Link learns that he can't save everyone; and he can't just "get over it" either.





	Stay with me

**Author's Note:**

> Here I am again! this fic is a bit more angsty/gory than my last one, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless! Why do I choose to make my boy Link suffer? I have no idea! But here I am, anyway!

It was quick. Not to say it was painless because it looked like it hurt a  _ lot,  _ but it was quick indeed. Link thought he could save them, he  _ knew _ he could save them, but he was getting cocky. He had forgotten what a threat bokoblins posed on innocent citizens; he had forgotten what it was like to be powerless. So instead of rushing to their rescue, he felt his horse delay slightly as he saw the bokoblins in the forest not far off from one of the stables. 

He didn’t see the people. He  _ swore on his life _ he didn’t notice the two women. He assumed the monsters were hunting some kind of boar or meaty animal, but when he neared them upon instinct was when he finally noticed the two women. 

He recognized them. Were they the truffle hunters? Were they explorers? Warriors? Raiders? Just regular people? It was hard to tell these days; everyone looked the same with their giant packs and their small swords. 

Jumping off his horse as if it had become a routine, he landed right by the bokoblins, knocking one out instantly with his sword and parrying the second’s attack with his shield. The first woman who was being terrorized was still on the ground seeing stars, and he reached out to help her up. 

But an ear-splitting scream and a terrible stabbing sound was what invaded his ears far too late. 

Swiftly looking from side to side, he noticed something crucial that made his heart stop:  _ there’s a third one. There’s a third one. _

The third bokoblin, a brown body with white splotches shrieked an ungodly shriek and jabbed his spear into the second woman who had momentarily slipped his mind. 

That one jab took the life out of her instantly. Link watched in horror as the woman’s ghostly face stared directly at him, a faint smile on her face as she coughed up a mouthful of blood as the spear went directly into her chest, impaling her and leaving her to hit the ground hard. Blood pooled around her almost instantly.

With one hit,  _ one hit, _ Link struck the monster down, eyes still widened in shock at the gory display before him. With one hit more, one  _ second _ more, he could have saved her. But he didn’t. She was dead. 

She had died at his hands.

By now, the other woman was wailing, running over and hysterically kneeling by her friend, weeping into her chest as she cradled the bloodied woman’s face. 

Her eyes were dead, lifeless. It would only occur to Link later that this was the first innocent he had ever seen go down under his primary watch. The woman, blood now staining her hands where she was cradling her friend, turned around and glared at him in grief. 

“YOU BASTARD! YOU COULD HAVE SAVED HER! YOU KILLED HER! YOU  _ KILLED _ HER!” she wailed, letting her head fall back in agony.

Link’s eyes were still wide with shock as he found his way back to his horse and numbly mounted it. 

“OH, don’t you run away from this!” the woman growled, her face contorted into a new kind of pain, “You damn COWARD, DON’T YOU RUN AWAY FROM THIS!” 

But he did exactly that. 

Looking back, he read her lips as she scarcely whispered something, eyes locked with each other. 

“Hylia will  _ never _ forgive you for this.”

Quickly grabbing the reins on his horse, Link rode away down the road, shock ebbing away at him. He now noticed the people of the stable running over, hearing the woman’s hysterical screams. Blankly looking at them, barely even registering it, he rode onwards.

He rode for hours and hours until the sun set neatly behind him. his hands shook numbly as he clutched his horse’s reins although he could barely recall the reason why. He could barely remember anything that had happened that day.

He rode for more than half a day, soaked in rain and then dried again in the sunshine. His stomach panged in hunger, but he could hardly feel it. His entire body felt cold. Numb.

He kept riding until he recognized the waters he was riding next to, and before he knew it, Link was dismounting his horse right on the bridge entering Zora’s Domain, letting the guard deal with his steed, and walking slowly across the bridge. 

He felt like a robot; like a guardian. He didn’t feel bad, or really that good either. He felt nothing. Nothing. 

“Link! Oh, Link! It’s really you!” 

Link blinked slowly, looking expressionless at the sights all around him, numbly trying to find the origins of the voice. His eyes landed on the other side of the bridge, where his red sharky friend stood excitedly, waving his arms up and down as if he were a little kid. 

Link’s face cracked a small smile as he slowly walked up the bridge to greet the prince. Sidon bounded across the bridge, meeting Link in the middle of it and wrapping him up in a tight hug. Link felt the warm sensation fill his body from the touch, but it felt wrong against his cold, almost lifeless body. 

Sidon released Link from the hug in surprise, staring curiously at the Hylian. Kneeling down so they were levelled, Sidon furrowed his brow and examined his friend. 

“Link, dear, you feel off...is something wrong?” 

Sidon took one of Link’s clammy hands between his and tried looking him in the eyes. But he was in another world already, staring off at something else in the distance. 

“Link.” his name pulled him vaguely out of whatever he was focusing on, and he felt a cool, uncomfortable sweat trickle down his back. He felt inhuman. 

Words bounced accusingly in his head, the image of the young woman coughing up blood, the  _ sound _ of her body hitting the ground. 

_ ‘YOU COULD HAVE SAVED HER! YOU KILLED HER! YOU KILLED HER!’ _

Link felt some kind of lump form in his throat as he felt Sidon’s touch, feeling numb and disgusted with himself. Sidon seemed to notice as he wrapped the Hylian in another hug, finally gasping with realization. 

“Link! Your clothes are _soaked!_ How long have you been wet like this?” 

He didn’t know. He had no idea how long he had been riding for, nor the fact that it had  _ rained _ recently enough to have his clothes still wet. 

The hero just shrugged tiredly and looked up at the zora, watching as the prince’s features went from shocked to worried. Link felt his eyes close. 

“We should get you inside, dear friend. Come with me.” 

His voice was stern, tense with worry, and Link managed to numbly follow the prince into his sleeping chambers, getting one of the maids to grab a pair of Hylian clothes for Link to wear and setting up his bed as the hero changed. 

When he finally re-emerged with dry clothes and hair, he quietly sat on the side of the bed. Sidon turned his back to him and started rummaging through a nearby closet. 

“I swear there were some extra blankets in here somewhere…” he rambled to himself. 

As Link finally sat down somewhere cozy and comfortable, he could now properly think about what had happened that day. The blood on his hands, the hard smacking sound as the woman hit the ground, the dull, lifeless smile she gave him as soon as that spear sliced through her. Link felt his hands between to shake. 

He didn’t mean it. He didn’t want her to die. He didn’t mean it. He didn’t want her to die.  _ He didn't mean it. He didn’t mean it. He didn’t- _

He felt the lump in his throat thicken and a small trail of tears streak silently down his cheeks. He still felt  _ so _ numb, but the guilt and the memory were making their way slowly in. He couldn’t breathe.

“Aha!” the Prince exclaimed, pulling out a large, puffy blanket. But Link didn’t hear him. He didn’t hear anything—nothing but that bone crushing  _ sound.  _ Nothing but the ear-splitting screams in agony. Nothing but the sound of her cursing him to the grave. 

_ But it wasn’t my fault— _ The way his mind pleaded out that one sentence like a mantra, as if it would save him somehow, as if it would fix everything. 

He couldn’t hear how loud and uneven his breath was. He couldn’t hear the trickling water of Zora’s Domain. He couldn’t hear himself start to cry. 

* * *

“Link...Link, please calm down if you can...try to breathe...” 

Link gasped, a hand reflecting to his chest as he felt his heartbeat rapid, feel his breath run off the rails. He pressed a hand to his face and found a steady stream of tears. 

“Are you alright? Are you injured anywhere?” 

Sidon’s confused voice brought him back to reality, grounded him just a little bit. Link swallowed and shook his head, listening to the Prince’s steady heartbeat. 

Wait. 

Blinking in surprise, he scarcely looked to his left to find himself pressed up against the Zora. He felt his face tint red with embarrassment, but he didn’t make an effort to move. His heartbeat and warmth might be the only things keeping him from flying completely off the handles. 

“Are you alright?” 

He felt a hand run through his hair. 

“Do you need me to get anything for you?”

Link shook his head once again, his chest rising and falling unevenly only slightly now. He swiped at his eyes and wiped away the remaining tears. Sidon pressed a glass of water up to his shaking hands. He sniffled. 

“I didn’t mean to…I didn’t want it to....” 

“What was that?” Sidon asked gently. Link didn’t reply, instead buried his face into Sidon’s chest. 

He didn’t speak again for that night.

The two of them sat there for what seemed like a lifetime, Link slowly being lulled by the relaxing sound of running water and the soft blankets, much preferred over cold rain and the harsh climate he was used to. All was silent before Sidon quietly said, “Would you like me to stay?” 

Link didn’t need to reply. 

* * *

**ONE WEEK LATER:**

“Link! To your right!”

Sidon’s warning caught him just in time as the Lionel swooped in with his rather large sword and shield in hand. Link backflipped in record time, skidding to the ground and shooting an arrow right at it’s head, causing the monster to fall back just in time for Sidon to hack at it from behind.

The lionel had been bothering citizens, specifically hikers and travellers coming through the mountain pass and waterfall paths. Much recovered, Link had decided, with much persuasion from Sidon, to take a bit of a break from the Divine Beasts, “just for a week” as the Zora put it. Since then, last week’s events had been quite a blur, one that Link preferred just to forget.

The relaxing lifestyle had been fun, but Link had been aching to fight something for the past few days and a couple moblins just weren’t gonna cut it. 

“Don’t let it use it’s arrows!” 

Link could hear the panic in the prince’s voice. It was natural for him to be afraid of the shock arrows he yielded. While it just sent a small shockwave through Link, it could leave a zora  _ debilitated _ if they were unlucky. 

Link shot at the hybrid’s head again, letting Sidon have enough time to join Link at the head of it, preparing for a combo attack.

They missed. 

The lionel, now more furious than before, charged them head on. Link felt something inside him stir, a feeling of unease as Sidon charged towards the monster, dodging it’s attack by a hair and sliding to the right, getting a direct hit on it’s head. 

The monster’s hooves stomped the ground below as Link dodged another oncoming attack, whipping out his ancient battle axe and preparing to backflip, triggering a flurry of attacks. As time seemed to slow, Link felt his body prickle as he felt the same familiar slowness he felt when he—

* * *

_ “YOU KILLED HER!” _

_ Just one hit away. He was just one hit away. One hair from being okay, one second more, if he had reacted just one second later, she would be fine. She would be alive. But she wasn’t. He had killed someone.  _

_ He had killed her.  _

_ He could almost smell the smell of the dead, the blood on his hands. The rain had washed it off a week ago, but he still felt it lingering on his hands. _

_ “Hylia will never forgive you for this.” _

_ She was right. The woman was right. He could never be forgiven. He could have saved her. He could have been quicker. But he wasn’t. He wasn’t. _

* * *

“LINK!” 

The loud yell from Sidon had barely snapped Link out of his thoughts, as he found himself face-first on the ground. 

“Are you alright?” he asked urgently, holding off the lionel as Link stumbled to his feet. 

“Just caught me by surprise…” Link murmured softly, feeling his lungs collapse in his chest. 

Sidon nodded, and the two continued to battle the looming lionel. They could both tell that it’s health was getting lower, and that if one of them could  _ just _ get the final blow, they could win. 

“I see an opening!” Link announced, running up and dodging the incoming attacks. It’s head was in the perfect spot for the blow to work, Link just had to distract it somehow. 

“I’ve got you covered!” Sidon yelled, holding up his spear and shield and parrying it’s attacks. Link could see the opening open back up again and the Hylian got out his strongest weapon, charging forward quickly, preparing to land the final blow. 

“You killed her.” 

Blinking, he looked around. Who the hell had said that? Was he going crazy?

“Hylia will never forgive you for this.” 

Link felt like he was drowning, his limbs froze and he just...stared at the lionel.

“Link, what are you waiting for? Kill it!”

Kill it.  _ Kill it. _

Link felt his hands shake, and he backed away slowly. The lionel locked eyes with the hero, and Link felt guilt pull at his heart. 

_ I’m not a killer. I can't ...I can’t kill her. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t... _

Sidon, backing away from the plan as it was clear that Link wasn’t attacking, parried the lionel’s sword against his shield one last time before jumping up and throwing back his shield, pulling out his large blue sword and hitting it square on the head. 

The lionel ceased it’s attacking, dropping it’s weapons and falling to its knees, poofing into a purple smoke and leaving it’s writhing guts and weapons on the ground in its place. 

“Yes! We did it!” Sidon exclaimed, turning around to celebrate with his friend.

_ The lionel was dead. _ The lionel was dead, and Link was doubled trying not to throw up. He was failing.

Link could barely see as dizziness and tears blurred his vision. He could smell the putridness of the monster’s innards, reminding him of nothing but that awful moment week before. A pool of blood lay in the lionel’s place, it’s guts writhing in it, and Link gagged when the smell hit his nose. 

_ He thought he had forgotten. He thought he was fine. _

He fought back a wave of nausea before emptying the contents of his stomach. He felt tears come immediately after. Gasping for breath, he sobbed softly, trying to breathe between each cough bringing up more sick. 

The guilt and shame of what had happened yesterday was finally getting to him, the shock of the moment gone away. The hero felt his knees buckle and it took everything in him to not fall into his own vomit. 

Nothing but a blur of lingering thoughts, voices he barely recognized, sounds he’d rather forget were roaring in his ears. Coughing, he put a hand up to cover his nose and mouth to get that disgusting stench out of his senses, but nausea still lingered and he found himself doubled over again at the thought of it. 

_ What in Hylia was wrong with him? He was better now. He shouldn’t be feeling this way anymore. It was over a week ago. He had forgotten about it...right? _

He felt tears dribble onto his chin as he felt a soft hand hold him in place until he was done. Once finished, he felt a rush of push forward as he could finally (barely) breathe again. One more look at the lionel had his stomach railing, but a steady pair of hands gently guided him away from the mess until it was out of sight. 

Link closed his eyes forcefully as he tried not to imagine anything more (and tried not to throw up again). Finally opening his eyes again, he found that he was nowhere near the bloodied mess, instead sitting by the top of a waterfall, the entire view of Zora’s Domain at his fingertips. The tranquil lull of the water relaxed him, and he found himself tucking his knees under his chest and just staring out at the beautiful scenery. 

Finally (sort of) coming back to his senses, he began wondering how exactly he got here. Turning around slowly, he jumped in surprise as he realized that Sidon was sitting right behind him, also staring out into the distance. 

He smiled when he caught Link staring at him. 

“Feel better now?” he asked, moving over a couple feet to sit beside his Hylian friend. Link nodded slowly. Truthfully, he really did feel better. He thought he had been better all week, but...maybe this thing was getting to him more than he thought it was. 

Sidon noticed Link’s distress and ruffled his hair. “Do you want to talk about anything?” 

Link nodded.

* * *

“Ahh...I see…” Sidon replied. Link had told him everything he could recollect from that day, not without his voice cracking just a couple times. Sidon sat and listened, understandingly, to every word, “Unfortunately every warrior has to see someone’s life get taken before their eyes. We can’t always save everyone, as much as we want to.” 

Link nodded solemnly, tear tracks now dried and breathing steady. 

“Just know it’s not your fault.” Sidon reassured, “And if you ever need to talk, I’m here.”

* * *

**Springtime, one year after the Calamity:**

“Link, could you pass me those bowls over there? Link?” 

Zelda frowned as she didn’t hear Link’s reply. Turning her head away from the cooking pot, she instantly recognized the far-away look in his eyes that she had become well- acquainted with over the past couple months. A look that brought him back to the past. Back to his not-so-nice memories he had before Hyrule was a kingdom of peace. 

“Link…” she said softly, gently touching his shoulder, “You’re right here. It’s alright.” 

Link blinked a couple times before the look in his eyes reminding him of the past was replaced with a knowing gaze. He turned to Zelda and sighed. 

“You’re allowed to be frustrated.” Zelda reassured him, “It’s not your fault.” 

Link nodded slowly and grabbed the princess’s hand, smiling as she giggled slightly. Zelda grabbed another carrot to peel. 

“Pass me those bowls?” she asked once again, grabbing the peeler. 

He did. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Well, hope you enjoyed reading another one of my unedited, unBeta'd fics that I wrote sometime in the early witching hours! Drop a comment if you enjoyed it or wanna gimme some feedback! I really appreciate it, y'all!!


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